When I was a child, my father’s work took our family to many different countries around the globe and we lived in many varied locations throughout the United States.  I learned early on that each place had its own resonance.

During that lonely period before making new friends and contacts there was always a period of solitude.  I used to sit outside in whatever new area we were presently living in, and watch and listen, trying to get the “feel” of the new environment.  I found it was more than just geography, or climate, or architecture, or language and customs, although each of these was part of what I sensed.  In my child’s imagination, I would give this “feel” or resonance a name and a human-like identity.  Only years later did I read that this resonance was known as “The Spirit of Place.”  As I grew older, I used to talk with this spirit of place.  I found that it always answered me in some sort of symbolic synchronicity. It still does.

Now, at nearly 71 years of age, I am still talking with the spirit of place where I live.  Every morning my German shepherd and I walk through the woods that back up against our back garden. As we walk, I pray for the healing of our endangered planet.  Recently I have wondered if the prayers were doing any good.  I read and observe daily the climate changes that do not bode well for any of us.  Yet we continue to abuse Nature and persist on our destructive, consumer-driven way.  And so I asked the sprit of place where I live if my prayers were having any effect at all.

Within two days, it was pointed out to me that an endangered species, the gopher tortoise had made a home in one of my flowerbeds.  Turtle, or tortoise is the Native American symbol for the Land itself.  The endangered turtle, symbol of the endangered Land, had made its home on the place where I live.  I had my answer from the spirit of place.  And endangered turtle felt this piece of land was safe enough to build her home.  I am honored by her presence.

“All wisdom is to be found in Nature.”  One cannot travel far in the study of Druidism, Shamanism, or any other earth based “ism,” without coming upon some version of that statement.  It is a cliché because it is true.  Nature is the Druid’s classroom, the place of the Shaman’s Vision Quest, The Great Mother Herself, teaching us through Her symbols, her wild life, her flora.  One eventually even begins to feel the spirit of The Stone People, The Cloud People and hear the messages of the Winds.

I recently read a story of shamans in South America who were curing diseases Western Medicine had failed to defeat.  The pharmaceutical companies heard of these cures and immediately sent representatives to South America to interview these shamans and bring back samples of the plants they were using to affect these cures. They had dollar signs in their eyes.  The shamans laughed and obliged, showing the reps the plants each shaman used.  Each used a different plant.  The representatives were confused by this but dutifully gathered all the plant samples and flew them back to the pharmaceutical companies who then spent huge amounts of money testing them in the labs and on volunteers.  The result of all the testing?  Nada.  The shamans thought this hilarious!  They told the disappointed companies that one had to become acquainted with the spirit of the plant, and the plant’s spirit would tell you if it wanted to work with you.  They said one could not just use a plant willy-nilly.  No two shamans work with the same plant or work in the same way.  There must be friendship between the plant and the shaman.  ("Plant Spirit Medicine," by Eliot Cowan). 

“Nature heals.”  Another cliché that is a cliché because it is true.  Whether our ills are emotional or physical, a quiet time spent in nature does help the healing process.  Nature seems to absorb our negative emotions, fears, anger etc and replace them with an inexplicable sense of calm and well being.  Quantum physics is proving that our thoughts and emotions control our biology, even our DNA.  Nature’s beauty and cycles of death and rebirth teach us both detachment and faith in the process and our thoughts become more positive, more hopeful, thereby aiding the healing process.  Nature is the number one tonic used in mind/body healing.

Unfortunately, we have been led to believe that nature is there to be exploited, and that we are somehow above it, rulers of the Earth.  As a result, climate change is coming at us with all the power and fury of a category five hurricane!  I suspect we will have no choice but to change both the way we view nature, and the very way we live on this planet.

The Druid, the Shaman, the medicine person of many cultures walk gently upon the earth, watching, listening, learning.  They know the Earth, the Land, is truly their Mother.  I have known Native American shamans who can predict dry spells, floods, storms and crop failure months ahead of climate scientists.  They do this by their observation of plant growth, wind directions, animal behavior, cloud formation.  They talk to the SPIRIT of the plant, stone or tree. I suspect the ancient Druids and their predecessors did the same.   We, on the other hand, depend on the TV weather forecasters.  It is a hit and miss business at best.  My daughter recently made the statement that, “It’s the only job in town where you can be consistently wrong and still keep your job.” 

Druidism and Shamanism both teach us that the Divine presences in the ordinary world.  In fact, some scholars state that the ancient gods and goddesses were forces of nature.  However one interprets the issue, there is no getting around the fact that nature is the basis of Druidic wisdom.  We find that holds true in all indigenous cultures from the Australian Aborigine to the Native American, to the tribes in Polynesia and on around the globe.  It is only our modern, techno-smart, profit driven culture that has turned its back on the wisdom of nature.   There used to be a commercial on TV that portrayed Mother Nature in Her green robes bringing down thunder and lightning.  The final words of the commercial were, “It’s not NICE to fool Mother Nature.”  Truer words were never spoken!

Take some time today to sit with The Mother and listen to Her messages.  Watch Her creatures, observe Her clouds and the way the light falls in this particular season.  Beltane is the festival of Flowers.  Celebrate.  Soak in their beauty.  Go out to Her classroom and listen, learn.  She whispers to us through the songs of the birds, the movement of the breeze through the new leaves and the cry of the Hawk.  Smell the earth.  She will heal you and teach you more wisdom than all the books ever printed.

 

About the Author: Morgana describes her 71 years as a journey quest for wisdom. Whether in the Halls of Academia, on the high desert of New Mexico under the tutelage of a Navajo Shaman, in the Temple of a Lyceum, in the Grove of the Druids, between the covers of books or in her own backyard, she has spent her life listening, abosrbing and sorting through information, ever attempting to distill the wisdom from all sources of knowledge. Her life has been one of travel around the globe. Wife, mother, writer, artist, teacher, priestess, druid, saman, defender of wildlife, volunteer at a pet shelter, all are roles she plays. In her role as shamanic practitioner, she works with physicians who refer patients for shamanic healing in conjunction with traditional medical care. She works with a circle of Shamans who come from many different traditions and whose goal is to affect world healing. She is owned and well trained by a German Shepherd named Loba and a cat named Morgan. She states: "There is really no such thing as retirement. There is just too much more to do and too much more to learn."